HELP! Cracked my tooth eating bird’s eye chicken – advice needed!!

s79

(Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, please move to the appropriate one if required)

Yesterday I cracked my tooth whilst eating a bird’s eye chicken breast fillet. Although I heard a cracking sound I didn’t realise it had actually happened, I spat out what I thought was the bit of the bone I had bitten into, it was only when finished my meal that I looked closely and I noticed it was actually the broken part of my tooth I had spat out, so I ran my tongue along my teeth to notice half of a molar was missing!! Stupidly I didn’t look hard enough for the offending bone that probably caused it and threw all my leftovers (and my half a tooth in the bin)

Thankfully there isn’t any pain yet (touch wood) but I think I will need looking at eventually, but im worried anything hard may break what’s left of the remaining tooth.

I am planning to write to birds eye ASAP to complain about this as I am seriously hacked off about this. Can anyone give any advice on how to approach this? I.e. what should I say? From the amount of tooth ive lost I know its going to cost me an arm & leg to get sorted.
However I get the feeling there may be a disclaimer on the pack saying ‘may contain bones etc’, but i havent yet checked.

Also I haven’t been to the dentist for 7 years (im 31 now), so any general advice on what’s best for me to do now would be greatly appreciated, i.e. trying to get a nhs dentist, dental insurance plans, plans with individual dentists etc

Many Thanks

anewman

The package may have said something like "while every care is taken to remove bones, some small bones may still remain". This is how they cover themselves legally unfortunately, although a complaint may still be worthwhile.

svmitche

Well, worth complaining to Birdseye - you might get something out of it, but they may demand evidence??? Also though, since you've not been to the dentist for a while might you have had an unknown cavity lurking there? I go to the dentist regularly, but recently I've had a broken tooth and two previously unseen cavities pop up with a few weeks.

NHS treatment (if you can find it) isn't too vastly expensive - my other half recently had four fillings for only £42, but then I dunno how bad the break is - if you can get away with a reconstructive filling and not crowns etc it might not be too bad.

If you choose to go private the initial set-up costs might be high and they might not be willing to treat you with and existing problem - the only way to find out is to ask. I'm on a very reasonable scheme with my local dentist but used to be with Denplan - their website should tell you where there are local Denplan dentists to you but I'm sure other posters will be able to advise of other schemes.

The most important thing though is not to leave it - and when you get it sorted don't leave it another 7 years to get your teeth checked over - I know I sound patronising and I'm sorry, but I think that you can't put a price on the health of your teeth!

Toothsmith

I would agree with svmitche.

If you haven't been to the dentist for 7 years, it will be extremely hard to prove that it was anything in the chicken that caused the problem at all.

Decay can cause a cavity in a tooth that gets bigger quite painlessly until eventually an undermined bit of tooth breaks off on the slightest thing.

As you said you didn't find anything other than a bit of your own tooth in the chicken, I would suggest it's more than likely that this is the cause of your broken tooth.

sooz

Did you defrost the chicken before eating it??

s79

Thanks for all your replies and apologies for my slow response. I somehow managed to find a NHS dentist and had a checkup this morning. Hes gonna fill the cracked tooth and sort out some other fillings next week! :jFingers crossed it all goes ok and he doesnt find anything major. And yes svmitche i will take your advice and try and have regular check ups from now on!

I am still gonna write birds eye mind you, cus im still convinced it was something in the chicken that did it... and yes sooz it was defrosted!! :rotfl:
i just knew someone was gonna say it, suprised it took so long!

s79

...p.s. any tips on how i should word the letter to birds eye???

Toothsmith

If the dentist found other fillings as well, then there were things going wrong in your mouth. If that's the case, then although you were eating the chicken when it happened, I bet the hard thing you felt was your own bit of tooth that had broken off.

If you're still determined to write and complain, then you will have to leave out practically every one of the relevent facts, and if you're prepared to do that, then you might as well pick up a bit of grit from the pavement and enclose it claiming it to be the foreign body.